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10 Things I Learned: Rosemary’s Baby
By Karen Stetler
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Novelist Ira Levin named Rosemary’s Baby’s apartment building the Bramford, after Dracula creator Bram Stoker.
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For his descriptions of the Bramford in the novel, Levin was inspired primarily by New York City’s Alwyn Court apartment building, several blocks southeast of the edifice director Roman Polanski would actually use in the film, the Dakota.
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Almost all of Levin’s novels have been made into movies; besides Rosemary’s Baby, A Kiss Before Dying, The Stepford Wives, The Boys from Brazil, and Sliver have also made the leap to the big screen.
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Levin also wrote the lyrics to “He Touched Me,” made famous by Barbra Streisand.
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Mia Farrow considered becoming a nun before pursuing an acting career.
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Although he famously trimmed her hair on the set of Rosemary’s Baby, hairdresser Vidal Sassoon did not actually create Farrow’s short hairstyle for the film. She had had her hair cut, much earlier, during her run on television’s Peyton Place. Her long hair in the film was achieved using wigs.
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After completing Rosemary’s Baby, Farrow wanted a break from the movie industry and went to India with her sister Prudence, to study transcendental meditation with the Maharishi. While there, the sisters encountered the Beatles, who wrote “Dear Prudence” for Prudence Farrow.
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Patricia O’Neal, mother of actor Ryan O’Neal, is an uncredited extra in the film—she plays the part of one of the “witches.”
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The voice of the blinded actor whom Rosemary talks to on the phone was provided by Tony Curtis.
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Producer Robert Evans offered Polanski, an avid skier, the opportunity to direct the 1969 film Downhill Racer—in part, he later said, as a means of enticing him to direct Rosemary’s Baby. Although the directing role eventually went to Michael Ritchie, Polanski did collaborate on the original Downhill Racer screenplay with writer James Salter. It was his suggestion to change the original title, Downhill Racers, to the singular.
Karen Stetler is a producer at the Criterion Collection.
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Novelist Ira Levin named Rosemary’s Baby’s apartment building the Bramford, after Dracula creator Bram Stoker.
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